President Trump’s Ban on Muslim Refugees in the United States and the Evangelical Response

The major crises of American Evangelicalism in the twenty-first century in regard to the American-Islamic relations can be summarized succinctly in three ways: (1) the Evangelical turn to political idolatry, (2) the crisis of (Evangelical) conscience, and (3) Evangelical resistance to express genuine biblical empathy and generous caring hospitality toward those who are suffering and oppressed.  These three important factors are vital to get a better understanding of the Evangelical response to President Trump’s Ban on Muslim Refugees. How have American Evangelicals reacted to this this executive order? Below, we have identified three ways that articulate the attitude of American Evangelicals toward possible Muslim Refugees in the United States and their response to President Trump’s recent executive order of The Ban.

1. Evangelicals for The Ban (Political American Evangelicalism): This group of American evangelicals is obsessed with political power and dominance. They believe in the expansion of the kingdom of God through active engagement in politics, and therefore cultural and political hegemony is a necessary means to achieve this Evangelical objective. Because Islam is the second largest and growing religion in the world, it is therefore perceived as a threat to the growth and expansion of Christianity in the world, especially in American and Western societies.  This group also fears the possible loss of religious and political power, the inevitable long-range impact of Islam in the American society, and correspondingly, the wide range of effects of Islamic ideals on American ideals and American way of life. In other words, the rapid spread of Islam and Islamic culture in American and Western societies and beyond has become a crucial alarming moment for the evangelicals belonging to this category. This Evangelical group supports President Trump’s Ban on Muslim Refugees in the United States because the members of this group categorically equate these potential Muslims refugees as prospective Muslim terrorist groups who will harm America and alter the American way of life through their religion, cultural traditions and practices, and language.

2. Evangelicals for Muslim Evangelization: This group of American Evangelicals categorically rejects President Trump’s Ban on Muslim Refugees in the United States. They interpret Trump’s executive order as a precarious threat to Christian evangelization to Muslims and as a disastrous hindrance to Christian mission in Muslim countries. This group of American Evangelicals holds that Muslims are heathens who need to be saved from their devilish religion and detrimental Islamic civilization. The evangelistic zeal of this group is not prompted by the biblical imperative to love the stranger and the non-Christian or is it motivated by the scriptural mandate to exercise sincere empathy and caring hospitality toward the Muslims; rather, their evangelistic outreach is without the challenging demands of the cross of Christ and devoid of the rigorous ethical teachings and practices of the Gospel.

3. Evangelicals for Muslim Friendship: This group of American Evangelicals interprets President Trump’s Ban on Muslim Refugees in the United States as unwarranted,unconstitutional, discriminatory, and as a human rights violation. While their support of Muslim refugees to immigrate to the United States, they still desire to maintain the hegemony of religion (Christianity) in the public sphere and strongly encourage Muslim assimilation into Western values and American way of life.  This group of individuals do not see potential Muslim Refugees as a possible menace to American democracy and progress nor do they place all Muslims in the same basket—such as radical religious zealots under the influence of radical Islam; however, they do fear that the ensuing full integration of Islam and Islamic culture in the American life and experience will eventually lead to the fragmentation of Christianity and Christian values in the American society.